T’BOLI TOURISM ENGLISH IN LAKE SEBU,

SOUTH COTABATO

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

2023
Volume: 12
Pages: 93-100
Document ID: 2023PEMJ1039
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8234095
Manuscript Accepted: 2023-10-8
Psych Educ, 2023, 12: 93-100, Document ID:2023 PEMJ1039, doi:10.5281/zenodo.8234095, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

T’boli Tourism English in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato

Doreen B. Tampus*
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.
Abstract
In the emergence of globalization, as people, technology, media, and the economy mobilize, the
English language also follows this movement. English has become the lingua franca of many
countries worldwide. The extent of the spread of English reaches even a cultural heritage community
like Lake Sebu, in the province of South Cotabato, in Mindanao, Philippines, because of tourism. In
gathering information relevant to this research, Schneider's (2016a) social parameters were adapted,
such as user characteristics in terms of age, gender, and professional status; usage conditions and
speaker's attitudes to political conditions and the languages involved. This paper argues that there is a
unique variety of Philippine English among T'boli tour guides influenced by their L1, which I call
"T'boli Tourism English." It is characterized by Schneider's (2016a) hybridity of English, Schneider's
(2016b) "grassroots Englishes," and it is located in the third circle of Martin's (2014) "circles within
circles."

Keywords: t'boli tourism english, philippine english, hybridity, "grassroots englishes"

Introduction that these works do not necessarily represent

Quirk (1988) asserted that only British English should
be considered as the only "standard" English but
Kachru (1985, 1992) opposed this idea because, for
him, there are many varieties of English that are
linguistically equal. This critical debate in the field of
linguistics in the past continues at present worldwide,
even in the Philippines. Educational institutions still
teach English deliberately following American English
as the "standard" English. But the recognition of
"standard" English also shows the marginalization of
other languages or other varieties of English. Many
Filipinos are unaware of other English varieties,
especially those from places that Canagarajah (1999)
calls the "periphery." It may contribute to the
continuous beliefs and practices that American English
is the "standard" English. Although many studies were
already conducted on the emergence of Philippine
English, mainly on describing the phonological
features, many are still ambivalent about this idea.
As early as 1969, even before Kachru (1985)
introduced his theory on World Englishes, which he
described through the three concentric circles,
Llamzon proposed to use Standard Filipino English
(SFE), the language of the "educated Filipino speakers
of English" which received several criticisms but
should remain as a remarkable attempt in describing
Philippine English. Later, in 1997, he presented the
three kinds of Filipino speakers of English: acrolect,
mesolect, and basilect, which will be discussed further.
Scholars such as Tayao (2004), Tupas (2004), and
Flores (2016) also worked to describe the phonological
features of Philippine English. However, they claim
Philippine English but somehow contribute to it.
Relative to this study, Dayag (2007) explores
Philippine English's intelligibility to contribute to the
"ongoing discourses on the intelligibility of world
Englishes." He examined samples of speeches of
exemplars of Philippine English and then listened to
by members of the three groups he called the
Kachruvian circles. From a different perspective,
Martin (2014) proposed that Philippine English might
be re-examined to cover other sociolinguistic aspects,
while Gonzales (2017) suggested moving beyond
standardized Philippine English towards Philippine
Englishes.
In the emergence of globalization, as people,
technology, media, and economy mobilize, the English
language also follows this movement and becomes the
lingua franca among all countries worldwide.
Blommaert emphasized that "the mobility of people
also involves the mobility of linguistic and
sociolinguistic resources" (2010). From a relative
perspective, Heller (2003), as cited by Blommaert
(2010), explains that "small and marginal languages
can, in the context of tourism, acquire new and
unexpected forms of prestige." Moreover,
"globalization is...something that produces
opportunities as well as constraints, new possibilities
as well as new problems, progress as well as
regression" (Blommaert, 2010). It is in this context
that I would like this paper to dwell with that, in the
advent of globalization, particularly on the impact
brought by tourism, there exists a variety among the
tour guides of Lake Sebu, a cultural heritage
community with its majestic scenery and rich natural
resources, becomes the most visited place in Region

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Research Article
12 not only of Filipinos but also of non-Filipino
guests, and English becomes a lingua franca with a
different linguistic feature, hence, a unique variety
influenced by the L1 of the speakers which I will call
T'boli Tourism English. "
Research Questions
This study explored the variety of English spoken by
tour guides in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.
Specifically, it addressed the following questions:
1. What are the features of the variety of English
spoken by the tour guides?
2. What are the user's characteristics in terms of age,
gender, professional status, usage conditions, speaker's
attitudes, political conditions, and the languages
involved?
3. Where is T'boli Tourism English located in the
"circles within circles" of Martin (2014) and in the
Philippine Englishes (PE) paradigm?
4. How does T'boli Tourism English contribute to the
exploratory survey examining Philippine English's
hybridity outside Metropolitan Manila?
Methodology
This study utilized a qualitative research design to
investigate the varieties of English spoken by the tour
guides in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. In gathering
information relevant to this research, Schneider's
(2016a) social parameters were adapted, such as user
characteristics in terms of age, gender, and
professional status; usage conditions, particularly in
the context of situation and speaker's motivation and
speaker's attitudes and to political conditions and the
languages involved. Interviews with the informants
and a researcher-made survey questionnaire were used.
Audio and video recordings were also secured and
transcribed.
Locale of the Study
This study was conducted in Lake Sebu. It is a
municipality in the Province of South Cotabato in
Mindanao, Philippines. UNESCO declares it as a
cultural domain inhabited by the T'boli people.
Research Participants
The participants of this study are tour guides who
Doreen B. Tampus
belong to the three (3) organizations recognized by the
Municipal Tourism Office. One (1) tour guide belongs
to the Mabuhay Hosts group, one (1) participant
belongs to a group that manages the local resorts and
tourist attractions of the municipality, and one (1)
representative of the "Habal-habal" or motorcycle
driver tour guides.
Data Analysis
The gathered data were analyzed using Schneider's
(2016a) social parameters such as user characteristics
in terms of age, gender, and professional status; usage
conditions, particularly in the context of the situation;
speaker's motivation and attitudes; political conditions
and the languages involved. In describing the
phonological characteristics of the English spoken by
the tour guides, the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA-American) was used as a major reference. While
analyzing the similarities and differences between
English and T'boli languages, the T'boli-English
Dictionary of Awed, Underwood, and Van Wynen
(2004) and Merriam-Webster Dictionary were
considered the primary references.
Results and Discussion
The Community of Practice of T'boli Tour Guides
Canagarajah (2013) proposed the concept of
communities of practice (CoP), which he believes are "
not based on traditional essentialized features that
construct homogeneous communities, such as race,
ethnicity, language, or religion" (pp.73-74). Still
instead, it is composed of " people from any of these
backgrounds who can come together for functional
purposes" (p.74). Moreover, he says that it is "the
practices they engage in to accomplish the shared
objectives that make them a community," which, in the
case of T'boli tour guides in Lake Sebu, is to make
every trip memorable and fun without qualms in terms
of language barriers, ethnicity, social status, etc. For
these tour guides, they do not only serve their clients
with the excellent services that they can give," but
"they also develop some communicative repertoires
that are reified through their mutual engagement"
(Canagarajah, 2013). Here, T'boli tour guides are one
community of practice coming together for specific
functional purposes for the tourists.
So where is Lake Sebu? It is located in the province of
South Cotabato in Region 12, known as the
SOCCSKSARGEN region. It is a cultural heritage
community of the T'boli tribe. As described by the
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Provincial Tourism Office, " "it is the summer and the
eco-cultural center of the province of South Cotabato
blessed with magnificent scenic spots and wildlife
resources with unique cultural communities and is the
major producer of tilapia, forest product (bamboo,
rattan)and abaca handicraft renowned as T'nalak. It is a
wonderful tourist destination as thousands of visitors
here and abroad consider it a must-see paradise
because of its cool weather, its one-of-a-kind resorts,
visiting its Lakes, waterfalls, and natural sceneries. "
Based on the 2015 Philippine Statistics Authority
report (posted on the official website of South
Cotabato), the area has a total population of 87,442,
mainly inhabited byT'boli people and some ethnic
tribes such as B'laans, Manobo, Kalagans, and
Maguindanaons. Because of its scenic spots and
diverse visitors, tour guiding becomes a meaningful
career among the locales. These tour guides use
English as a medium of communication other than
their native T'boli tongue, Hiligaynon, the language of
the nearby municipalities, and Filipino, the language
of television shows produced in Metropolitan Manila.
These tour guides belong to different associations
recognized by the Municipal Tourism Office. One
group is called the Mabuhay Hosts, composed of 22
active members. This group of tour guides is
comprised of women aged. They are private
individuals (e.g., small, scale business owners) and
employees of the municipal tourism office working
part-time as tour guides. They are categorized
according to their scores given by the DOT. Only
those in the top ten are allowed to serve VIP guests.
These VIP guests are Filipinos or non-Filipinos (e.g.,
government officials, models, and actors).
Another group of tour guides manages the local resorts
and tourist attractions. Most of them are self-
supporting college students or staff/crew of the resorts
who are working part-time as tour guides. One
particular resort in Lake Sebu, which I selected to be
part of this research, has four (4) tour guides who are
all women, aged from late to early 20, and have T'boli
as their L1. The third group is the "Habal-habal" driver
tour guides. They are drivers of the motorcycle (called
"habal-habal"") used as the primary means of
transportation in the area who are mostly high school
graduates. Like other groups, their organization is
accredited by the Department of Tourism and
registered with Security and Exchange Commission.
This group comprises 22 male members aged.
According to the association's president, 90% of his
members are elementary and high school graduates
and only 10% reached college but did not finish their
chosen degree. There are 150 members, but because of
Doreen B. Tampus
non-compliance with the rules and regulations of the
Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Municipal
Tourism Office (MTO), only 22 are acknowledged as
legitimate members of the group.
The 2016 report of tourists'' arrival from the Municipal
Tourism Office shows that LakeSebu has
approximately 438,083 tourists which 435,953 are
Filipino tourists while 2,130 are non-Filipinos. Guests
are Filipinos from nearby provinces in the region and
other places all over the Philippines, while non-
Filipino tourists are mostly from Australia and the
USA. Canada, Scotland, Mexico, Japan, Korea, and
China. With the diversity of the nationality of the
guests, English, besides Hiligaynon (the language of
migrants in South Cotabato from Western Visayas)
and Filipino, become the community's lingua franca.
English is a lingua franca which, for Seidlhofer (2009),
denotes a "vibrant, powerful and versatile shared
resource that enables communication across linguistic
and geographic boundaries." " In a relative manner,
Schneider (2016a) purports that "the growth of English
into the role of the main vehicle of globalization and
the global diffusion of the language, an essential
component ofCrystal's (2004) ''language revolution,''
have increased both the impact of and an awareness of
contact influences. " Because of the demands of
tourism and globalization, English has become the
contact language of a cultural heritage community like
Lake Sebu. "English is not only a variety or even a set
of young varieties any longer – it is a globally
available resource for speakers, including speakers
with limited access to formal education, employing it
for their communicative purposes in creative ways"
(Schneider, 2016a). Because of the presence of non-
Filipino visitors, English has become an important tool
in the communicative interaction between the locales
and the tourists. It is worth noting that the tour guides
do not belong to the elite, rich, and educated class but
use English creatively. It is what Schneider (2016b)
theorized as "grassroots Englishes," which is
comprised of speakers who come from "relatively poor
backgrounds but have striven and managed
successfully to acquire a communicatively effective
level of competence" (p.3). These individuals "mostly
have an exceptionally high instrumental motivation"
(Schneider, 2016b). In the case of T'boli tour guides,
learning English results in high motivation to uplift
their way of living.
Bringing with them the ''instrumental motivation," as
coined by Schneider (2016b), these tour guides
confidently use a variety of English with unique
features of their L1. For example,/Filifins/ instead of
/Filipins/because T'boli lacks the phoneme /p/ and has
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/f/ instead. Also, the glottal stop / `/ is dominant in this
variety of English. Another important feature of
English among the T'boli tour guides is hybridity. The
speaker usually mixes with Hiligaynon, the region's
lingua franca, and Filipino, which they claimed they
learned in school and television shows, particularly in
the "teleserye" (television drama series). Although
"T'boli English" does not perfectly follow the
"standard" phonological features of either "American"
or "British" English but the message is intelligible,
thus, making the communication process and the tour
guiding successful.
These tour guides learn English in school. It is also
important to note that the municipality has a mission
school established by American Passionist priests/
missionaries in 1961; hence, from the past, English in
this community is the classroom language. They
arrived at their current proficiency through various
trainings conducted by the municipal and provincial
tourism offices, and they rate their listening and
speaking proficiencies in English average because,
according to them, they were understood by non-
Filipino visitors, and they were successful in every trip
and tour that they had. They also rate their reading and
writing skills as average. The officers in charge
addressed Their requests and issues to the municipal
tourism office; therefore, the readers understood their
writing purposes using their kind of English. They
usually use English if there are non-Filipino tourists.
They use their linguistic repertoire, which is learned
from the neighborhood, school, television shows,
songs, and the training conducted by the tourism
office. The tour guides from the resorts use the script
provided by the management, mainly in English but
with T'boli greetings, which are also translated into
English. They would also use English to show their
audience they know what they are doing as tour guides
and what they are talking about. Upon boarding the
boat during the lake cruise, they will first ask the
guests if everyone can understand Hiligaynon or
Filipino, and if not everyone understands the said
languages, automatically they will use English; hence,
English becomes the contact language. But if the
tourists on board are all Filipinos, they mix English
with Hiligaynon, Filipino, and T'boli. This mixture is
what Canagarajah (2013) calls 'code-meshing' "as a
realization of "translingual practice" dealing with
language resources that are mobile, fluid, and hybrid."
In his 2016 survey of Hybrid Englishes, Schneider
only explored Taglish, primarily used in Metropolitan
Manila. Considering the Philippines has "multi-
tongued people in a nation with more than a hundred
recognized indigenous languages" (Bolton & Bautista,
Doreen B. Tampus
2008), T'boli Tourism English has its right and place
in the Philippine Eng paradigm. Moreover, the
community of practice of T'boli tour guides supports
the World Englishes paradigm introduced by Kachru
(1985), a notion that many varieties of English are
spoken by people worldwide, which are all
linguistically equal. After Llamzon(1969) introduced
his theory on Standard Filipino English (SFE) in 1997,
he presented the three kinds of Filipino speakers of
English: acrolect, mesolect, and basilect. The third
group, as described by Llamzon, is the basilect, whose
"speaker's ethnic tongue forms the substratum (also in
Tayao 2004). In this sense, the variety of English
T'boli people speak belongs to the third group, the
basilect. The way tour guides speak English is
influenced and characterized by their native tongue,
T'boli. So, what are the linguistic features of the T'boli
language may also contribute to how T'boli tour guides
use English?
Awed, Underwood, and Van Wynen (2004) published
the T'boli-English Dictionary. According to them,
seven vowels and fifteen consonants are in the Tboli
alphabet. The vowels are /a/, /i/, /e/, /◻/, /ə/, /o/,
/◻/ and /u/, while the consonant letters of the T'boli
alphabet are /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ng/,
/s/, /t/, /w/, /y/ and the glottal stop / `/. T'boli lacks /p/
as a phoneme and has /f/ instead, which is rare among
Philippine languages. Moreover, the "syllables begin
with a consonant and in the absence of any other
consonant a glottal stop will occur." There are also
many T'boli words with two consonants at the
beginning of a word written as a consonant cluster.
Noting the phonological features of T'boli language,
Gonzalez (1997) also described Philippine English as
summarized by Alberca (1978) and Gonzalez and
Alberca (1978) that Philippine English is composed of
an "attenuated vowel system consisting primarily of
the following sounds: /i/, /u/, /ey/, /e/, /◻/, /a/ with
usually missing sounds such as: /I/, /U/, /Ə/, /o/ and
/æ/." While the "consonantal system has unaspirated
and sometimes unreleased (in final position) stops, no
labiodental and interdental fricatives, no voiced
alveolar and palatal fricatives, a flap /r/ with missing
consonant sounds: /z/, /ž/." He also added that "stress
patterns differ from Standard American English (the
model) in polysyllabic words, and intonation is very
much dominated by the intonation of the first language
rather than English with the marked use of the rising
intonation for WH questions. Rhythm is syllable-timed
rather than stress-timed."
Considering the features of the T'boli language and
Philippine languages in general, English also plays an
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important role in a cultural heritage community like
Lake Sebu, makes English the language "local agents
in the tourism business, therefore, need to be able to
speak and hence, strive to acquire" (Schneider, 2016b).
T'boli tour guides in Lake Sebu are "instrumentally
motivated" (Schneider, 2016b) and "linguistically
talented" (Schneider, 2016b) because they acquire
their English in "whatever form and by whatever
means available" (Schneider, 2016b).
/◻fis/ instead of /◻◻fəs/) and so on. Some words
are also repeated, such as "in…in our logbooks" (found
in sentence #4) and "the numbers…the number" (found
in sentence #5). It can also be observed that sentence
#5 is quite long and complex. The conjunctions
"because" and "so that" are used repeatedly but
generally, Tour Guide A gets his message across;
hence, the orientation conducted before the tour is
successful.

Tour Guide A Tour Guide B

For example, Tour Guide A, a "habal-habal" driver, Another feature of T'boli English" is its hybridity. It is
studied in college but only reached the third year and a mixture of T'boli, Hiligaynon, Filipino, and English.
is in his early 30's. He said that he began learning Tour Guide B, for instance, is a woman in her early
English in school during his elementary and high 50s and the number 1 Mabuhay Host based on the
school years but admitted that the training was not accreditation result. She is also the founder and owner
enough. Instead, he developed his pronunciation skills of the T'boli School of the Living Tradition, an
through English songs on the radio and the advocate of culture preservation, and an awardee of
"videoke/karaoke." He is linguistically creative, and the National Culture Center of the Arts (NCCA), she is
even with limited resources, he finds ways to improve also an advocate of language preservation; hence,
his speaking skills which eventually helped him in his when serving as a tour guide, she greets first inT'boli
career as a driver/tour guide. The example below is a "Heyu helafus" followed by English "good morning"
transcript while he is conducting the briefing to the and finally, in Filipino "Magandang umaga" and back
tourists at the "habal-habal," a public utility vehicle to English again, "Welcome to Lake Sebu! " She
terminal. mixes English with her mother tongue and Filipino,
the national language of the Philippines, giving
(1) "Hello, Ma'am and Sir, good morning. (2)Welcome importance first to her mother tongue, T'boli.
to Lake Sebu, the home of the T'boli tribe and the
summer capital of southern Mindanao. (3)Are you Tour Guide C
going to have a tour Sir, Ma'am? (4) If you are going
to have a tour around Lake Sebu, please write your In the same manner, Tour Guide C, a young female
name in…in our logbooks because this is the mandate T'boli front desk in charge of one of the resorts in the
of our local government unit of Lake Sebu and also the locality, is a fresh college graduate and works part-
mandate of the municipal tourism office. (5)The time as a tour guide. She has been a tour guide since
purpose of this is for us to know the numbers…the she was 16 and a scholar at the missionary school
number of tourists coming to Lake Sebu within the mentioned earlier. Like Tour Guide A, she learned
period of one year because we are reporting this to the English in school but developed her communication
tourism office, and at the same time, this is our safety skills while working as a tour guide. Her L1 is T'boli;
procedure here in the tourists' drivers' association of her L2 is Hiligaynon which she learned from her
Lake Sebu because all the drivers that will be assigned neighbors and classmates, while Filipino is her other
to you will also write their names in the logbook so language from television shows. Most of the time, she
that if you encounter problem during your tour around is assigned to the lake cruise, where she uses the script
Lake Sebu, we can locate your driver for provided by the resort management, but she also
interrogation." converses with the tourists during the question and
answer sessions. She begins the tour by greeting
It can be noticed that Tour Guide A has a strong glottal everyone inT'boli, "Heyu helafus ebeleye, heyu kekol
stop / `/, which is considered a consonant sound in his ye benibe garden lake be kut totol resort benebe sebu,"
L1 (audio recordings can be provided if necessary). then proceeds by greeting the guests in English by
Suppose the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA- saying, "Good morning to everyone! Welcome to
American) will be the basis of what is "correct" Garden Lake (not the name of the resort), the number
pronunciation of the words. In that case, several words 1 lake resort here in Lake Sebu; welcome to the
are mispronounced, such as "period" (pronounced as summer capital of South Central Mindanao. It is the
/p◻riəd/instead of /p◻riəd/), "same" (pronounced T'boli homeland and the land of dream weavers, Lake
as Sebu."
/səm/ instead of /se◻m/), "office" (pronounced as

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Furthermore, according to the informants, if they
notice that the guests are all Filipinos, they mix
English with Filipino or Hiligaynon, borrow the T'boli
term, and use English to describe something further.
For instance, "swat koyu" has no English equivalent
for this hair accessory; tour guides describe it as a
woman's headdress. Admittedly, Tour Guide A
particularly uses English even though his guest is a
Filipino because, for him, terms in English are shorter
and more accessible to explain than in Filipino. For
example, he uses the word "inclusive" instead of
saying "kasali sa tour package na ito ay…" (translated
as " included in the tour package are…"). Also, Tour
Guide C admitted that one difficulty she encountered
in her job as a tour guide was when she served tourists
who were non-English speakers or those who did not
understand even simple English. In this situation, her
last recourse is to use sign language while slowly
pronouncing the English word/s/.
T'boli English is indeed a "grassroots English," a
variety introduced by Schneider (2016b) spoken by
individuals with "immense instrumental motivation"
who learn and use English "sufficiently for their
respective professional purposes" " (p.3). "English is
meant for work, for contacts with visitors" (pp.4-5).
There is no "correct" or "error," "standard" or "non-
standard" as long as the purpose of the language is
successfully conveyed. There is an understanding
between the tour guide and the tourists. To Schneider
(2016b), the speakers of "grassroots Englishes" aim to
acquire language without considering strict rules but
function in highly specific contexts. Hence, T'boli tour
guides use English successfully for tourism purposes.
For Buschfeld and Kautzsch (2016), the spread of
English is brought about by "extra- and intra-territorial
forces," which I believe, in the case of "T'boli Tourism
English," it is brought about in particular, by tourism
and in general, by globalization which is also true in
the case of Lake Sebu. When the three informants
were asked about their attitude toward the spread of
English in their ancestral domain, they all answered
that they use English for work-related purposes, which
they considered as their bread and butter. They do not
have a choice because of the powerful force driven by
globalization. This powerful force is the linguistic
imperialism of English for Phillipson (1992). As
Phillipson explains, "English has a dominant role
internally occupying space that other languages could
possibly fill…the key external link in politics,
commerce, science…entertainment and tourism"
(p.30). These tour guides want to uplift their way of
living; hence, they use English as a relevant language
in their career, but still, they remain loyal to their
native tongue and even promote their heritage
Doreen B. Tampus
language by greeting the tourists first using their L1.
In addition, this paper also attempts to locate "T'boli
Tourism English" in Martin's (2014) "circles within
Circles." In her article, she argued that the Three
Concentric Circle of Kachru (1991) might be re-
examined so that sociolinguistic realities of Outer
Circle speakers of English may be presented. She
proposes that in the Philippine context, there are also
three circles of English speakers, the Inner Circle, the
Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. She asserts
that:
"There is an Inner Circle of educated, elite Filipinos
who have embraced the English language (whether
standard American or Philippine English) and actively
promote and protect it. There is an Outer Circle of
Filipinos who may be aware of Philippine English as a
distinct and legitimate variety but who are either
powerless to support it and/or ambivalent about its
promotion. And there is an Expanding Circle of users
of English in the Philippines to whom the language, of
whatever variety, remains a requisite to upward
mobility but is also largely inaccessible" (p.52).
In the case of T'boli Tourism English used by tour
guides, I posit that this belongs to the Expanding
Circle of the Philippines, where English is necessary
for their career brought about by globalization but is
also inaccessible because of economic constraints. Not
all can pursue higher education and learn to be more
proficient in English because not all can afford the
economic demands of the Philippine educational
s y s t e m . G o n z a l e s ( 2 0 1 7 ) in his a r t i c l e
comprehensively presented the developments and
perspectives of Philippine English and further
suggested: "to move beyond standardized Philippine
English towards Philippine Englishes should not be
discredited but instead…recognize Philippine
'Englishes' and embark on future (socio) linguistic
studies thereof for the benefit of PE as a whole." He
also proposed that existing research on Philippine
Englishes should be reconciled. Specifically, studies
that describe and use data within the Manila context
should be labeled as "Manila English" and so on;
however, scholars should continue using Philippine
English "because it refers to the collective varieties of
Englishes in the Philippines in general."
In the end, no matter how these tour guides pronounce
the words or construct sentences, this will agree with
the idea of Tupas (2004) that "the democratic
dimensions of PE will make us realize that structures
of use, no matter how 'ungrammatical' and
'unsystematic,' are embedded in deepening structures
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Research Article
of economic inequality and power imbalances reared
in our country's colorful history of subjection and
resistance." He further explains that "PE signifies the
cultural and sociolinguistic signs of the entire country,
although scholars have generally reserved it only to the
educated few." He later suggested that there are two
important things scholars should do to explore "new
grounds for research." First, there is a need to include
the "uneducated Englishes" and second, the need to
"redefine the nature of PE from being a "postcolonial
language to a neo-colonial one" which in the same
manner, I believe "T'boli Tourism English" is a
response to this call.
Moreover, Tayao (2004) examined the evolving study
of Philippine English phonology following Llamzon's
(1997) group of representative speakers of Philippine
English. She described the phonological features of the
three identified groups. She later suggested that future
studies concerning Philippine English will not mainly
be concerned with the notion of 'standard' Philippine
English pronunciation but, most importantly, will
focus on "describing descriptions of a range of accents,
differentiated both according to geography (and first
language background) and according to social-group
membership." Mahboob's (2014) model of language
variation can also address this variation. There are
eight domains included in this model, which I
hypothesize "T'boli Tourism English" falls to domain
6, comprised of global, oral, and everyday language.
For Mahboob (2014), this domain focuses on English
as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Therefore, English in a
cultural heritage community and a tourist destination
like Lake Sebu is considered a lingua franca because
of its oral communicative encounters with foreign
guests.
Conclusion
On a final note, this paper will contribute to the studies
of Philippine Englishes not only by describing its
phonological features but also taking into account the
ethnic structures that contribute to its variety while
focusing on the "uneducated and neo-colonial
Englishes" and by not "ignoring the linguistic practices
of genuinely marginalized voices in Philippine
society" (Tupas, 2004). As people, economy, media,
and technology move, language goes along with this
movement. For Seidlhofer (2011), the extent of the use
of English is caused and a consequence of "socio-
economic, political and technological development
called globalization" that even a cultural heritage
community like Lake Sebu is not excused of. In the
emergence of globalization, where English is not only
Doreen B. Tampus
for "educated Filipinos" (Llamzon, 1969), all varieties
carry equal significance as long as the communicative
and functional purposes are successfully delivered.
After describing "T'boli English" and locating it in the
PE paradigm, I conclude that this variety has a
reserved place in the sail of Philippine English/es with
a reserved seat in the third circle within the three
circles planted firmly like grassroots below the placid
Lake Sebu. Because tourism English is considered a
"grassroots English" (Schneider, 2016) and the notion
of varieties of English or World Englishes is not yet
explored in the southern part of the Philippines, it is
therefore recommended to conduct similar and further
studies on the varieties of English spoken by tourist
guides with ethnic tongues in some tourists
destinations acknowledged as ancestral domains in
Mindanao, Philippines.
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Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Doreen B. Tampus, PhD (c)
Sultan Kudarat State University - Philippines

Schneider, Edgar W. (2016b). Hybrid Englishes: An exploratory

survey. World Englishes,doi: 10.1111/weng.12204.

Seidlhofer, Barbara (2009). Common ground and different realities:

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